Rewrite Imposter Syndrome with a Creative Mantra

1. Introduction: [MUSIC] Is your inner critic keeping you from your best work? Many creatives suffer from imposter syndrome. A plague that tricks you into thinking that you're not good enough to share your art, but you can rewrite those lies. My name is Crystal Cestari. Ever since I was young, I knew I wanted to be a writer. When I finally reached my dream of getting published, I thought my struggles with confidence in artistic work would magically disappear. [NOISE] I was wrong. In fact, writing professionally only deepened myself down. While I was writing my fourth book, I realized that if I wanted to continue working without feeling terrible all the time, I needed to develop a better relationship with my creative practice. In this class, we're going to talk about imposter syndrome and how you can rewrite the negative narrative that's holding you back. This course is suitable for creative thinkers of all levels who are looking to reconnect to their craft in a positive, meaningful way. Whether you create professionally or for fun, this course will challenge you to examine your current relationship to your art, and what you want it to be. Our project today is developing a creative mantra. Having a creative mantra has made a significant difference in how I approach my work as an author. I used to be ruled by negative thoughts. It felt like every time I picked up a pen, my inner critic was giving me a reason not to. But now, when those negative voices want to stir up trouble, I talk back. Over time, my mantra has helped me stay the course and become a happier, more productive artist. What's more? Repeating this positive phrase time and time again has even started to replace my knee-jerk negative reactions. Pretty cool. To get started, all you'll need something to write with, so have a notebook or a Word doc ready to go. Together, we'll work through a couple of exercises that will ultimately lead you to your mantra. We'll be digging into a lot of feelings today. But it's important to be honest with yourself in order to get a helpful end result. I promise it'll be worth it. Once we get to the end, you can download my free template to display your mantra as a helpful reminder. This editable PDF can be downloaded from the class resources. Ready to rewrite imposter syndrome? Let's get started. [MUSIC] 2. What is Imposter Syndrome?: [MUSIC] It is a truth universally acknowledge that every creative person will experience self-doubt at one time or another. In fact, every artist I've ever met, regardless if they get paid for the work or not, has experienced issues with hating their work, feeling like a failure, wanting to give up, and unsure if they even have the talent to do the job. If this sounds familiar, you are not alone. Self-doubt is often paired with negative self-talk. Unproductive, untrue thoughts based on feelings, not facts. These are the pessimistic, often straight-up, mean voices inside your head that tell you you're not good enough. Negative self-talk is also referred to as your inner critic or inner bully. I'll be using these terms interchangeably throughout this class. There are many factors that contribute to self-doubt. But today I want to focus on elements that feel extra relevant to the creative community. Let's talk about the comparison trap, your emotional connection to your work, and moving forward in uncharted waters. Let's start with comparison. We live in a comparison society, where you can't even look at your phone without being constantly bombarded by other people's success. No matter where you are in your creative journey, seeing someone who is ahead of you can sometimes make it feel like you'll never get there. Even as you hit milestones, comparison pushes the goalpost farther. Your inner critic may not even recognize the work that you've done because it's already looking forward to what you still need to achieve. This can make it feel like the work you've done is never enough, leaving lots of room for negative self-talk. The nature of creative work is oftentimes so deeply personal that bringing it to life is an emotional roller coaster, all of its own. As artists, we put our hearts and souls into what we make, which can store up a lot of thoughts, positive and negative. No matter your medium, inevitably you will be pulling elements from your personal life and that can be a lot to deal with. This is a time when your inner bully can pick on the way you express yourself, somehow, no matter which road you choose, it's always wrong. It's so frustrating. Finally, what is a sure-fire way to feel like you don't know what you're doing by doing something new. Impostor syndrome is often brought on by feeling like you're out of your element. The first time you try anything new is always a little unsettling. But with art, you're always doing something new. Always creating a new song, a new painting, a new chapter. You are creating a brand new worlds every time you pick up a pen or a paintbrush. Doing new things is scary, but that doesn't mean the bully is right. It's not a fact that you are a bad artist. It's not a fact that you can't do this. But I get it, that inner voice can be really convincing. It's up there all alone, surround sound, living rent-free in your head. It constantly has your attention, whether you want it to or not. This, my friend is a bully, but it doesn't have to stay that way. Because the best way to fight a bully is to kill them with kindness. 3. Let's Write: Your Negative Thoughts: [MUSIC] Now it's time to do some self-reflection. Even though it pains me to say it, I want you to think about what are the most reoccurring negative thoughts you experience while you're creating. What are the things that pop up in your head most? I'll go first, when I'm writing, my inner critic likes to say things like, why did you write so slow? This is taking you forever, or you're never going to be as good as all the big names in your genre, so rude. Grab your notebook or move over to your Word doc and jot down a few of the thoughts that bother you most. Try to write down at least one, but up to three of your most frequent negative thoughts. I know it's not fun, but it's an important step in coming up with your creative mantra. Pause this video to finish this activity, then jump back in when you're ready. 4. The Power of Positivity: [MUSIC] We've been talking a lot about negative self talk. What about positive self talk? That's the thing. Spoiler alert, it definitely is, but it's a little bit more elusive. Positive self talk happens when you tell yourself good things about your life. These are optimistic, uplifting voices that point out what's going right, instead of what could go wrong. Anytime you give yourself a mental pat on the back, that's positive self talk. When dealing with impostor syndrome, it's likely you are auto-tuned to negative self talk, which means you have to make a conscious effort to tell yourself good things. Somehow we're always ready to believe the bad things about ourselves, so getting in a good word takes effort. When you make a conscious effort to fill your head with positivity, it can make a dramatic difference in how you feel as a creator. It may seem basic, but the more you think good things, the more you'll start to feel good things, which in turn motivates you to create good things. I'll give you a personal example. It wasn't too long ago that I seriously considered giving up writing. I was working on my fourth book and having the hardest time. Nothing was clicking, every sentence felt impossible. I found myself feeling more and more disconnected from my career in craft. All the while, my inner critic was telling me, "You're fraud, you're failure." I realized that I couldn't keep writing if my headspace was filled with all this constant negativity. I started learning about mindfulness and how to practice gratitude. Both of these are extremely fascinating topics, and I highly recommend doing a deep dive after this class. Though it was very hard at first, I started noticing that the more I actively took time to tell myself good things and recognizing that my writing was not a complete disaster, the better I felt, the more I actually wanted to write. We're quick to believe the negative thoughts. But what if the voice inside your head was nice? How would that change the way you feel about yourself and your work? If someone was constantly telling you, "I love your work. You're doing so great. I can't wait to see what you do next," wouldn't that make you feel more excited, more engaged, more motivated to work? Better yet. What if that person saying all of those nice things to you, was you? Let's do another writing exercise. 5. Let's Write: Your Artistic Motivations: [MUSIC] I want you to think about your main motivations as an artist. What drives you to create? Do you create for fun to connect with others? To make a living? There are no wrong answers. I have a lot of different motivators. First, I like spending time in imaginary worlds. Oftentimes it's more fun than the real world. I'm also a very private person. I like being alone in my thoughts where I can make all the rules and no one can tell me no. But my biggest motivator is that I want to make a difference in someone's life. Reading had such a dramatic impact on me that I want to give that back to someone else. Even if it's just one person knowing that what I've made has made a difference for someone else. Motivates me to keep going. Now it's your turn. Go back to your notebook or doc and write down your biggest motivations as an artist. Understanding what drives you can help you overcome what's holding you back. Pause this video until you've written 1-3 motivations. Then, come on back. 6. Find Your Creative Mantra: [MUSIC] Now we have a list of our biggest fears and our biggest motivators. It's time to see if there's any correlation between the two. In order to fight self-doubt, we need to hold onto why we are creating in the first place. We need a mantra that we can hold onto in times of need. Having a mantra can help you talk back when the inner critic gets too noisy. Instead of letting those pessimistic, painful thoughts run wild, repeating a positive mantra can break through that negative soundtrack and help you find some peace. Drawing from your motivations is a powerful starting place in finding your mantra. You're an artist for a reason, and you need to remind yourself of that when things get tough, you need to tell yourself something uplifting and true to directly address the very thing that's trying to drag you down. It took me some time to find my creative mantra. One of my biggest fears is that I'm not good enough, but one of my biggest motivations is that I want to make a difference. I started by repeating phrases like, you are a real writer or your words matter. While both of these things were true, they weren't bringing me the sense of calm that I was really looking for. Eventually, I landed on I am doing my best and that's all I can do. This helps me feel better because when I work on something, I know that I'm giving it my all. Whether or not someone else connects with what I made or whether they like it, I can't control that part. But I do know that when I work on something. I go into it with the best intentions and to the best of my ability. That's all I can do. Now it's time to find a phrase that works for you. Your mantra can be any length of something shorter may help you repeat it over and over when needed. It should be something that's easy to remember and brings you peace. Use gentle, positive adjectives that reflect self-love. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking. The more you tell yourself something positive, the more you'll start to believe it. 7. Let's Write: Your Mantra: [MUSIC] It's time to write your mantra. Go back to your notebook and draft some mantras. You may not hit the perfect phrase right away, and that's okay. But don't give up. Pull from your motivations and find words that directly combat your negative feelings. Once you've written some phrases, try saying them out loud or repeat them in your head. It may feel awkward at first, it definitely did for me. But you may find that one phrase rolls off the tongue better than others, or that you simply need time to get comfortable saying nice things to yourself. That's okay too. The goal here is to get your brain churning with more positivity. Once you have something to work with, go to the next lesson and we'll talk about how to put this mantra into action. 8. How to Use Your Mantra: [MUSIC] Once you've got a nice phrase ready to go, it's time to put it to work. Anytime those negative thoughts start creeping in, I want you to immediately repeat this phrase here to yourself as many times as you need to make those negative thoughts go away. No one is going to like this story. No, I'm doing my best and that's all I can do. You should be further along in your career by now. I'm doing my best. That's all I can do. Every time a negative thought comes into your head, I want you to shut it down with your creative mantra. The truth is, is that imposter syndrome isn't something that can magically disappear overnight. It takes focus and dedication to wear down that inner critic who has been living in your head for so long. Even with the power of positive thinking, you're still going to have bad days. Self-doubt is really persistent, but the more you are actively consciously working on this, the more you will start to feel better over time. In addition to repeating your mantra to yourself over and over, you can also make a print version of your mantra as a reminder to tell yourself good things. I've made a template you can download from the class resources, but you can also put this mantra anywhere. Write it in a notebook, write it on a bathroom mirror, or any place that would be helpful to you. I'd love for you to upload your mantra to the Class Projects' section to help inspire other artists just like you. Let's spread positivity, everybody. Thank you so much for spending the last 20 minutes with me. I really hope that this was helpful for you because seriously, the world needs your talent. You can tell your inner critic that I said so.